Values of Okinawan residents and emigrants : Geographic and generational comparison of North America, Latin America, and Okinawa

The present study investigated value succession and shift in an ethnic group by focusing on similarities and differences among current Okinawan residents and Okinawan emigrants and their descendants. A survey was administered to participants of the 6th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival held in Okinawa in 2016; we obtained1093 responses. Of the total participants, data of 548 Okinawan residents, 128 North Americans, and 65 Latin Americans who have Okinawan origin were chosen for this study. Seven value items, uncertainty avoidance, paternal authority, in-group thinking, group thinking, gender roles, risk taking, and power distance, were used for analysis. The results of geographic comparison (North America, Latin America, and Okinawa) suggested that Okinawa scored high in collectivism, gender roles, and risk avoidance. In North America, a low level of group thinking and egalitarianism in gender and power was observed. In Latin America, paternal authority, risk-taking, and uncertainty avoidance was high and group thinking was low. Furthermore, the following generational differences were identified among migrants: the first generation of emigrants retained Japanese values while growing up; this tendency was also prevalent in the second generation of emigrants in Latin America. In North America, however, value change occurred in the second generation. In both areas, more personalized and less traditional values became strong in the third generation

Extracellular ATP facilitates cell extrusion from epithelial layers mediated by cell competition or apoptosis

For the maintenance of epithelial homeostasis, various aberrant or dysfunctional cells are actively eliminated from epithelial layers. This cell extrusion process mainly falls into two modes: cell-competition-mediated extrusion and apoptotic extrusion. However, it is not clearly understood whether and how these processes are governed by common molecular mechanisms. In this study, we demonstrate that the reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels are elevated within a wide range of epithelial layers around extruding transformed or apoptotic cells. The downregulation of ROS suppresses the extrusion process. Furthermore, ATP is extracellularly secreted from extruding cells, which promotes the ROS level and cell extrusion. Moreover, the extracellular ATP and ROS pathways positively regulate the polarized movements of surrounding cells toward extruding cells in both cell-competition-mediated and apoptotic extrusion. Hence, extracellular ATP acts as an “extrude me” signal and plays a prevalent role in cell extrusion, thereby sustaining epithelial homeostasis and preventing pathological conditions or disorders